Hi Heie! Thanks for your review, it's definitely one of the better ones out there.
Originally posted by Heie Just looking at face value at specs of the two (just go to B&H or Adorama to read it), the CF version offers over a 50% gain in load capacity and weighs half a pound less.
Looks like it brings quite a bit, especially for a tripod that's already so diminutive.
Those are manufacturer specs, and as I've mentioned they can't be trusted. I mean look at the games makers play, here's Cullman's Nanomax 200T CB 5.1 with it's 2kg weight rating:
https://www.cullmann.de/en/made-with-cu/made-with-cu/news/profi-fotograf-n-b...omax-200t.html
and then on that same page they link to a review from the famous photographer Nicolas Beaumont where he says:
"Even if the Nanomax 200T is not certified for more the 2kg I often worked with heavy gear on it, for exemple on the great wall near Beijing; it was loaded with the 1D Mk IV and 70-200 f/2,8 L; even like that it was stable !"
2.89kg clocks in at exceeding the "max" weight by almost 50%.
Some tripod makers are reasonably intelligent and actually list different weight ratings based on the angle, so for instance 3 Legged Thing has this in the specs of the EVO3 Punks Rick Carbon Fiber Tripod System:
23° - 20kg / 44lb
55° - 15kg / 33lb
80° - 10kg / 22lb
Originally posted by Heie Then why don't you buy the tripod yourself and do a proper review?
Not that I have the time or money right now, but to do it right I should probably launch a website and do a good series of comparative reviews. It's what I want to do.
Originally posted by Heie Also, are we talking about the same review? Or if we are, did you read through it or just stop at the construction overview of the review (which - I agree is quite comprehensive)? There's an entire page dedicated to the stability of the overall tripod system tested using...wait for it...A ONE MILLIMETER WIDE LASER BEAM.
Over multiple iterations and test parameters...
The laser beam isn't a bad idea, but I prefer what Mark Banas does in his reviews: "With the legs fully extended and the center column lowered, our vibration analyzer (an iPad on a 3 lb (1.36kg) aluminum block) was mounted to the ball head with a long lens plate. A large solenoid valve with a plastic hammer was then used as a consistent source of vibration (a knock to the bottom of one leg). The resulting graph of all three accelerometers shows both the resistance of the tripod and head to the initial shock, as well as the rate of decay for residual vibration within the tripod."
The laser pointer test was from what I can tell a controlled setting with a single lens. While I like Mark Banas' test, it could be further improved upon. Ideally we'd have a picture of how a tripod does on a variety of surfaces in different leg length configurations at different temperatures with different lenses at different center of gravity orientations experiencing different vibrations (i.e. I might be out on an overpass with vehicle traffic causing vibrations in the road, how will the tripod cope? I might be near a large waterfall with the vibrations of falling water shaking the ground, how will those be absorbed? I might be on a windy hilltop, how much will the tripod flex, vibrate, and transmit that to the camera?) Obviously a review can't test every scenario, but some reasonable subset should be determined and tested.
Originally posted by Heie And then a gallery of real world examples of photographs taken using said tripod, including extremely long exposures captured with it, none of which suffered IQ loss, even at the pixel level, unless it was the fault of the user.
The lack of failure cases actually made it harder for me to determine just how good the Sirui T-025X is.
Originally posted by Heie Of course more and more tests could have been added, and more tripods added to the comparison, but do we really need 15-25 items to do an effective comparison and before it can be considered valid? Do you have any idea how cumbersome that would be to compile? Do you even want to read all of that?
"We"? I don't pretend to speak for anyone but myself. Are there other people out there like me? Sure. How many? I have no idea. But yeah I love long, detailed reviews with lots of data. Also ideally the comparison tables in a review would be dynamic and allow the reader to select multiple criteria, assign weights to them, and then generate unique and specific results for that reader. I think it's largely a mistake that so many sites task reviewers with creating static reviews that have a combination of implied and/or explicit criteria and then reaching a single conclusion (perhaps with a few variations).
Let me be clear - your review was good. Most reviews of photo equipment are terrible. But there is room and opportunity for reviews to be great.
Originally posted by Heie I seriously don't understand why this review has proven so inadequate for you.
Right, I haven't provided examples, so let me do that.
A great SD card market review:
On MicroSD Problems
A combination of using acid to dissolve the plastic casing, reveal the insides, and then use low level tools to reveal the card ID information, combined with good information about what companies actually make the flash and the controllers and how the market works, makes this great.
Pretty much any power supply review from jonnyGURU.com:
Andyson N700 700W Titanium Review
but also take note of the "Death of a Gutless Wonder" series:
Death of a Gutless Wonder V: Uncool to the Max Review
Why it's great is because it reviews the packaging, marketing, claims, aesthetics, physical design, fit and finish, extras, determines the true manufacturers of the parts and components, does cold bench tests and uses a $10,000 piece of testing equipment to hot box test and simulate a range of possible load scenarios, provide the collected data and oscilloscope graphs for the results, performs a teardown and analysis of the construction. Then the "Death of a Gutless Wonder" series provides that terrific counter-point to the excellent manufacturer-supplied power supplies by going out into the real world, buying something retail, cheap, off the shelf, testing it and seeing when it lets the magic smoke out.
The closest I've seen to this in the photo review world is S.C.V. Photography Ideas, with their reviews like this that have a tripod teardown in them:
S.C.V. Photography Ideas: Nest NT-6294CT Carbon Fiber Traveler Tripod Review
I think it's great, I'd love to see more of it in the photo world.
Any of John Siracusa's reviews over on Ars Technica, like his Yosemite review:
OS X 10.10 Yosemite: The Ars Technica Review | Ars Technica
25 pages that I really enjoy reading.
Hopefully this gives you some idea of where I'm coming from.